Bayern Munich are quickly learning what it is like to deal with Tottenham Hotspur chairman, Daniel Levy.
The German giants have made Spurs’ Harry Kane their top transfer target of the summer as they belatedly seek to fill the huge hole left by the departure of Robert Lewandowski last year.
Kane, with one year left on his contract at White Hart Lane, is desperate to escape the club in search of silverware and honours. Initially this looked like it could have been at Manchester United, but the Old Trafford club cooled their interest after it became clear that Levy was not going to play ball for anything under £100,000, if indeed, he was going to play ball at all with a Premier League rival.
In stepped Bayern, whose opening €70m (£59m) bid was laughed out of court by Levy.
Now, according to The Daily Mail, the Germans are “due to make an improved near £70 million bid for Harry Kane, but they want the transfer settled quickly.”
Good luck with that one.
“A second bid, worth marginally more with contingent clauses, might reach £68m (€80m), but that appears to be the upper end of Bayern’s projections for a player who will be free next summer,” reporter Rob Draper says.
There are not many people who would expect Levy to even get out of bed to respond to such a derisory offer.
So, if that is set to be the end of the Herr Kane of München story, what happens next?
Levy is reportedly still trying to persuade the England man to commit the rest of his playing career to Tottenham and has slid a lucrative deal across the desk toward him.
“Tottenham have made a massive new contract offer to Harry Kane that would significantly improve his £200,000-a-week terms,” The Guardian claims.
“But the club’s talisman has no immediate intention to sign it and will certainly not do so while the transfer window remains open.”
All this adds up to one highly likely scenario: that a 31-year-old Kane will walk out of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium a free agent next summer.
This could be fantastic news for United.
Bayern are unlikely to be willing to wait yet another season to sign a striker and will probably have turned their attentions elsewhere. Real Madrid will most likely be getting Kylian Mbappe on a free transfer at the same time, PSG’s credentials are unlikely to interest the England man and so as things stand, it could come down to a straight fight between Chelsea and United.
Much is being made in the press of Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino’s special relationship with Kane, but all will likely come down to how both clubs fare in the coming season, which looks the more likely to gain the striker the silverware he so craves and which will be able to offer him Champions League football.
This is all crystal ball gazing, of course, but the likely withdrawal of Bayern from the list of runners and riders will certainly give United justified hope that they can resurrect their campaign to land the England captain.